Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Epic Level Vanth: Pops Okkult, Mad Scientist

Here's another from my Encounter Critical rogues gallery, done primarily to see how a very high-level character might turn out. One of the neat things about EC is that level advancement requires the completion of a special task -- a new spell for a warlock, a new territory discovered or mapped by a pioneer etc. In Jeff Rient's review of the game he points out that this is "a great way to put the ball into the players' court. 'Hey, I've got enough XP for level 4. Would you guys help me rob a bank?' " It's also a fun tool for brainstorming NPC backgrounds, setting details and plot hooks.

The Mad Scientist class advances in level by making scientific discoveries, new inventions, or uncovering Truths Humanity was Not Meant to Know. In the process he gains a new mutation each level...Papadamos Ozymandias KulintangMad Scientist 9

ACTS OF RENOWN: Eldritch Dalliances & Discoveries 2. Investigated the wreck of the Good Ship Lollypolyp 3. Found the lost Tentacularium of the Mantopi 4. Discovered the secret genealogy of Asa Goodman Thoth, the Mummy Pilgrim 5. Sounded the Lost Chord of doomed bluesman Matty O’Rilyeh 6. Redrew the blueprint to the legendary Torpedo Star Throne by channeling a Space Phantome 7. Synthesized rare blood isotope needed to unlock the Tenth Vampire Door 8. Serendipitous discovery of a cure for alchemical spore inflammation (fails to enter into widespread usage due to the impractical quantities of gojiron ichor required in its making) 9. Diverted the Moon of the Seven Shackles from collision with Vanth

The technomancer known as Pops Okkult shows little outward sign of madness. The mutational effects of his researches and experiments have left his body mostly unmarked, and he is not given to grandiose raving and shouting as are some of his peers. If one pays close attention a nimbus of strange light sometimes seems to color his features and twist his shadow, and a whiff of smoke hovers in the air about him. But to most he seems merely a shabby old man in a sooty scarf.

Nonetheless, Pops is driven by a terrible obsession: He believes it his destiny to unlock the Great Writhing Wormhole at the center of Vanth. The fact that this would destroy the planet and scatter all of its people and places into millions of space-time fragments throughout the galaxy is of small consequence. To fund his doomsday plot he travels Vanth by Lunar Crook and scenic tour bus selling subscriptions to Grit and the Eibon Times-Eschatologer.

(complete stats for Pops, the Mad Scientist class and Mutation Table expansion can be found at the Encounter Critical mailing list. Tell 'em Thrazar sent you.)